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Teens arrested after 3 bodies found in Trois-Rivières

Quebec police say two minors have been arrested after three bodies were found in a home Tuesday morning.

Teens comfort each other outside a house in Trois Rivieres, Que., after learning that a school friend might be one of three young people murdered inside. (Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By The Canadian Press

Tues., Feb. 11, 2014

TROIS-RIVIÈRES, QUE.—Teens watching from the edge of a police perimeter clutched each other and sobbed Tuesday after realizing their friend was likely one of those dead in a triple homicide in their central Quebec community.

Police in Trois-Rivieres said they intercepted two 17-year-old boys on a suburban street around 8 a.m., moments after they allegedly emerged from a home.

The sight of half a dozen officers — their guns drawn — making the arrests broke the breakfast-time tranquility on the quiet residential street. One alarmed neighbour snapped photos through her living room window.

After apprehending the pair, officers entered the two-storey house they had just exited, a police spokesman said. Inside, they made a gruesome discovery.

“Three people were found dead after a brutal slaying inside the home,” Michel Letarte told reporters. “Two young women and a young man.”

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Police declined to disclose the ages of the victims. It was not immediately clear who called police to the house.

Letarte said it was too early to know what kind of charges, if any, the young men could face.

Investigators interviewed people in vehicles parked close to the home and, at one point, two women began to weep as they exited a police vehicle. They broke into tears as they walked toward a group of teens who had been waiting for them on the street.

They cried as they held each other.

Several of those waiting by the police tape had come from a local high school after hearing the news. They said they were waiting for the grim word that their pal was among the dead, but felt they already knew the answer.

“We think that one of the three victims is our friend,” said one teenage girl, a Grade 11 student, adding she had known her friend since primary school.

“Everyone is in shock, but we don’t have confirmation. So everyone is waiting while also knowing that it’s surely her. Everyone is worried.”

Another classmate said she last saw her friend Monday afternoon at the end of the school day.

“She said bye to me before getting on the bus,” the teen said.

Gabriel Gignac, 23, said he grew up down the street and had spent a lot of time with the young adults who lived in the house. He feared the worst as he waited for word on victims’ identities.

“I don’t know exactly which ones are dead … It’s terrible,” said Gignac, who tried to comfort some of the young women at the scene.

“Seriously, I could never have believed that someone would have wanted to do harm to (them) because, man, they were really good people. That’s why I can’t believe it.”

Neighbours and curious onlookers from other parts of town also converged on Sicard St. to see all the police vehicles and media.

Police had roped off a large area around the home, limiting what could be seen of the property in west-end Trois-Rivieres, about 135 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

The outside of the residence, which had at least one car in its driveway and a basketball net, offered few clues that it was a crime scene — except for a shattered second-floor window.

Hours earlier, however, surprised locals were lured to their windows by the commotion at the end of the disturbing event.

Danielle Poitras, who lives around the corner from the house, said she watched police head off the suspects from her living room.

“The officers were just like this,” Poitras said with her arms stretched in front of her, hands clasped together like she was holding a gun.

“It was just like 19-2,” said Poitras, alluding to a popular TV police drama in Quebec

One image showed a young man who looked like he had given up. His hands were pressed on the back of his head as he stood in the middle of the street, waiting for police officers to make the arrest.

Another photo showed police guiding a cuffed suspect into a cruiser.

Moments after the arrests, Poitras said ambulances and more police vehicles raced to the scene.

“It was crazy,” said Poitras, who didn’t know the family that lived in the house.

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